Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change - weADAPT

Municipal Strategic Statements: that include a commitment to support thepreservation of agricultural and food producing land in the municipality: Casey,Wyndham, Swan Hill and Moorabool Councils have all done this.Bacchus Marsh Horticultural Area: the Moorabool Council resisted pressure fromdevelopers to rezone prime food growing areas for sub-division and urbandevelopment.Landshare Australia: brings together people who have a passion for home-grownfood, connecting those who have land to share with those who need land for cultivatingfood. The concept of Landshare began in the UK in 2009 and has since grown into athriving community of more than 57,000 growers, sharers and helpers across thecountry.Northern Rivers Food Links: is a collaborative partnership between seven NorthernRivers Councils and Rous Water that aims to secure a sustainable food future for theregion. The Partnership has a budget of $1,899,080 to implement a range of initiativesduring 2010 and 2011 including:village showcase projects;marketing and education;distribution projects;food production and distribution in Indigenous communities project;sustainable agriculture projects;a local government resource kit http:/www.northernriversfoodlinks.com.au/.Penrith Food Project: is one of the longest established food security projects inAustralia with the goal of ‘increasing and improving the supply of affordable,acceptable, nutritious and safe food to residents and workers in the Penrith LGA, withparticular concern for disadvantaged groups’. The Penrith Food Project includes(among others) the objectives of conserving high quality agricultural land andincreasing local production of food. Over the last ten plus years the project has alsoinfluenced the development of a number of other food policy projects and networks inNSW including the Sydney Fresh Food Bowl Network; Hawkesbury Food Program; andHawkesbury Harvest.Hawkesbury Harvest: is described in Budge & Slade 2009, pp. 5052. HawkesburyHarvest was established as an incorporated organisation in 2000 covering three localgovernment areas (including Hawkesbury). Its strategic goals are: business andindustry engagement in agribusiness – promotion and communications, productdevelopment, advertising, merchandising, regional branding, income generation,industry members, education and support.While many of these initiatives have been established in recent years, some wereformed decades ago. The oldest community garden in Perth (APACE) was establishedin 1987 in one of the poorer parts of Fremantle, to serve the needs of recent migrantsand those without gardens of their own. The Centre for Education and Research inEnvironmental Strategies (CERES) in Melbourne is not only well known, but has alsobeen in existence for many years, and demonstrates vividly the opportunities forintegrating a wide range of educative and productive activities. Given issues of climatechange, food security and the growth of urban areas, there is clearly a need for a moreUrban food security, urban resilience and climate change 92